Heretofore, when the hobby maker has desired to manufacture craft goods from such items as discarded glass containers and the like, the labor involved had to be done almost entirely by hand. An electric drill proved totally unsatisfactory because the speed was too great and could not be controlled to a speed within a critical R.P.M. range. Even if an electric drill could have been used as supplementarily to the hand operations, it would still be necessary to change the grinding implements thereon at frequent intervals, due to the various different multiple steps required in cutting, grinding, polishing, and finishing raw materials into a finished product and the various different tools required for each such step. Moreover, an electric drill would chip the glass, which is dangerous and which would produce totally unacceptable work.
A further difficulty with prior art techniques has been occasioned by the brittle and dangerous nature of glass itself. When working with any such brittle material, control of R.P.M.'s of the grinding tool within a narrow range is critical. The general inability precisely to control the R.P.M.'s on an electric drill has caused the hobby maker frequently to ruin many such discarded glass containers before obtaining a product suitable for use in the finished item. This complicating factor arose not only from the general inability to adjust the R.P.M.'s of the crude devices, such as the electric drills used, but also from the lack of suitable means for holding the drill in a completely stationary position.
A further difficulty associated with prior art techniques and apparatus for hobby finishing items, such as throw-away bottles, jars, jugs and other glass containers and objects, such as telephone wire insulators, has been the lack of a single tool which could be used for all of the steps necessary for working the raw material into the finished hobby item, including the necessary cutting, drilling, grinding, polishing and boring, buffing, and finishing.
A yet further difficulty with prior art glass working techniques was the necessity of spraying water on the edge being worked to avoid splintering. This was messy and required expensive and hard to operate equipment.
An additional problem with prior art techniques was the general inability to accommodate such techniques to working with glasses of differing wall thickness, different hardnesses and the prevailing lack of understanding of the use of sandpapers in conjunction with a power driven tool.
Accordingly, in view of the serious shortcomings of the prior art devices for hobby finishing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will, materially alleviate such difficulties.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide in one machine all of the tools necessary for performing the steps of cutting, grinding, boring, buffing, polishing and finishing the materials used in which machine the R.P.M.'s of each necessary tool are adjustably maintained at proper levels for each such operation.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a multiplicity of different polishing, grinding and sanding tools on shafts which are simultaneously pulleyed to turn at the R.P.M. necessary to the accomplishment of their individual purpose and in proper proportional relationship to one another.
Yet an additional object of the present invention is to provide a multi-purpose tool having a speed control thereon such that the R.P.M.'s necessary for the accomplishment of any individual task may be set precisely to avoid damage to the product being finished and subsequent waste of material.
A yet further object of the present invention is to provide a hobby finishing tool which may be used as a dry processing tool without the necessity of water being sprayed upon the object being crafted, which avoids messiness and the additional cost associated with providing such water to the grinding area.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide workable means for recycling glass containers and objects which otherwise would be without substantial utility and often have been discarded as valueless litter, and as such constitute an ecological threat.